Walter Marsh

Rob Hirst was a force of nature, a born showman who led Midnight Oil from the back Phenomenal drummer and percussionist was an equally accomplished songwriter who embodied the band’s bloody-minded spirit

I wrote this some time ago - with all of us knowing this day would come, and Rob, of course, fighting like the bloody-minded bastard he was to the very end. He irrevocably changed my life - and how our country saw itself. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

Adelaide Festival board has retracted their statement of 8 January and have an extended an invite to Randa Abdel-Fattah for the 2027 Writers' Week

'If it was the board’s decision, why did half its members resign?': Boycotting author reflects on Writers' Week wake - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia Author and InReview editor Walter Marsh tells how Writers' Week furore leaves "our small literary pond feeling just as toxic" as algal bloom.

Some reflections on Adelaide Writers' Week from this Adelaide writer. Deep disappointment all round, and some big questions:

www.indailysa.com.au/news/opinion...

I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week | Louise Adler Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation

“We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Writers' Week 'spin' under fire - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia This weekend, head to the Barossa Valley for A Day on the Green or discover the park lands on a guided tours.

InDaily have picked up my publication of the letter from the AF board regarding Thomas Friedman dropping out of the program, with a new statement from South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas doubling down on a position not supported by the facts.

@helen-karakulak.bsky.social has the story.

'Dark days': Writers' Week staff reject axing as authors leave in droves - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia Writers' Week staff reject the board's decision to axe a prominent Palestinian author, in an email to authors seen exclusively by InDaily.

@helen-karakulak.bsky.social in with the latest over at InDaily:

I was set to do three sessions in March, and as an Adelaide local with a new book out Writers’ Week means a lot. And yet, a pretty simple choice.

‘My work is often misunderstood’: Shaun Tan on his surreal Tales from Outer Suburbia The author-illustrator reflects on his ode to a suburban childhood as a small-screen adaptation comes to ABC this summer * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email In the internet’s slop era, where even auteurs such as Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki can find their distinctive style cribbed en masse by platforms like ChatGPT, perhaps it was inevitable that Australian artist Shaun Tan would encounter his own AI imitators. For the moment, at least, Tan can laugh about it. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

‘My work is often misunderstood’: Shaun Tan on his surreal Tales from Outer Suburbia

Night — and a Gentleman Burglar — at the Museum

One minute you're writing a book at your desk in Adelaide, the next it's in The New York Times.

The Butterfly Thief is out now in the USA 🇺🇸 scribepublications.com/books/the-butterfly-thief

nytimes.com/2025/11/19/books/review/the-butterfly-theif-walter-marsh.html

Cover of “The Butterfly Thief” by Walter Marsh

Hugely enjoyed @waltermarsh.bsky.social’s “The Butterfly Thief” - both a gobsmacking story of entomological skullduggery and a sobering reflection on museums’ role in the extractive work of empire.

Cheers Patrick 🙏

‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers Paul E Mullen has had a front-row seat to the men behind some of the worst public massacres. He says it’s possible to ‘disrupt the script’ for future violence

‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

@waltermarsh.bsky.social true crime caper 'The Butterfly Thief' pieces together several mid-century museum thefts that shook Australia’s leading natural history institutions... My review is available at Foreword Reviews: shorturl.at/SHhnh.

UK PUBLICATION DAY 🇬🇧

A year ago I went to London to visit some grand, old, complicated museums, and track down some big pieces of the puzzle that become my second book #TheButterflyThief 🦋

A year later, pretty much to the day, it’s out now: scribepublications.co.uk/books/the-butterfly-thief

📚 REVIEW: In his rollicking scientific true-crime, The Butterfly Thief, Walter Marsh delves into the dark side of museum collection histories – and one bizarre heist.

👉 theconversation.com/theft-l...

‘Smash, grab, melt it down’: how material value likely motivated the Louvre heist Experts say thieves would struggle to find a buyer if the stolen goods remained intact

“This is a horrible time to be a museum.”
Once well-funded and well-guarded, museums and galleries all over the world are faring worse than the fancy-brand jewellery shops that have no role fostering national heritage and contemporary culture. A wake-up call.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Free lesson in museum theft management courtesy of my new book The Butterfly Thief (spoiler: they still got robbed)

Police focus on ladder placed against the side of the Louvre Andrew Harding Paris correspondent, at the scene

Sorry but this is the funniest headline I will read all year

Tarnanthi turns 10: how a small South Australian festival became a super-sized champion of First Nations art This year’s edition, a statewide juggernaut spanning more than 30 exhibitions and events and a major show at the Art Gallery of South Australia, celebrates the past and present while looking to the future Walking through the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) alongside Nici Cumpston, it’s as if the Barkandji artist and curator is surrounded by old friends. For the past 10 years, Cumpston’s role as artistic director of Tarnanthi festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art – which this week celebrates a decade with a supersized statewide iteration spanning more than 30 exhibitions and events, including a major exhibition at AGSA – has seen her travel widely and listen deeply to bring these canvases, sculptures and video works to Kaurna country. Continue reading...

Tarnanthi turns 10: how a small South Australian festival became a super-sized champion of First Nations art

‘Harvest of loot’: the colonial legacies of South Australia’s Benin Bronzes - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia In an exclusive book extract, InReview editor Walter Marsh explores how a group of bronze sculptures behind glass at the South Australian Museum reveals a complex story of British imperialism, a South...

A group of bronze sculptures behind glass at the South Australian Museum reveals a complex story of British imperialism, a South Australian governor, and the hidden slavery connections of an Adelaide Hills dynasty.

Another extract from my new book:
www.indailysa.com.au/news/in-dept...

Great read, had never clocked the Grace Jones connection 🌨️

The Butterfly Thief It was inevitable that George Lyell and Gustavus Athol Waterhouse would become friends, despite all appearances. Lyell lived in the Victorian town of Gisborne, had never got beyond high school and was a partner in a dairy machinery factory. Waterhouse had haunted the Australian Museum since attending prestigious Sydney Grammar next door and graduated with first-class honours in geology and palaeontology. There were 11 years between them.

In 1947, 800 butterfly specimens were quietly stolen from Australian museums by a British socialite. Walter Marsh’s ‘The Butterfly Thief’ uncovers a story of obsession, betrayal and friendship in a story it’s surprising isn’t better known. satpa.pe/9ATiKCF

The great butterfly heist: how a gentleman collector stole thousands of butterflies from Australian museums Scientists are still unravelling the thefts of Colin Wyatt, an English adventurer, artist and naturalist who charmed the entomological community

The great butterfly heist: how a gentleman collector stole thousands of butterflies from Australian museums

Trent Dalton, Bri Lee and Melissa Leong’s ‘raw’ memoir: the best Australian books out in October Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Fiction, Simon & Schuster, $34.99 Continue reading...

Trent Dalton, Bri Lee and Melissa Leong’s ‘raw’ memoir: the best Australian books out in October

The fluke that exposed Australia’s greatest museum heist A chance discovery rocked the world of natural science: more than 3000 rare butterfly specimens had vanished from Australia’s most prestigious museums.

The fluke that exposed Australia’s greatest museum heist — extract from my new book in this weekend’s Fin Review:

www.afr.com/life-and-lux...

My second book, The Butterfly Thief, is out today — cracking open the complicated world of natural history museums, and the gentleman collector who left them scrambling 🦋

Net it in the wild at your local bookshop or order online: scribepublications.com.au/books/the-bu...

Shrinking casts, diminished reach, less ambition: the arts in Australia needs more than just tax reform | Eamon Flack The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent – it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation, writes Belvoir St theatre’s artistic director

"The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent; it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation. Artistic talent doesn’t spontaneously come to fruition [...] [it] is passed down from the generation before." theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Walter Marsh – The Butterfly Thief – Gleebooks.com.au

Sydney book launch, Tues September 30 @ Gleebooks, in conversation with Helen Sullivan 🦋🍷

Tickos: gleebooks.com.au/event/walter...

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics.

The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.